Our Summer Summed up!

Big. That describes our family, dreams, goals, and vacation! We started out on Saturday June 27 by car with the kids…with Virginia Beach as our first destination! That’s about 18 hours by car. Don’t give us too much credit yet…David’s parents went also and took 3 of the kids with them! We made it as far as Huntington, WV for our first hotel stay…uneventful..nice sunset behind a bridge was our view from our room. Yay. Off the next day to our final destination in VA Beach! There we stayed at the Sheraton right on the beach…for 3 nights. Our first night there we went to the Holiday Inn for dinner…my long lost sister, KT, has a son who works there. So we had a good dinner and the kids played in the pool there before we walked back to our hotel…observing the street peformers along the way. The boys and I split off from David and the girls…and we got to see some amazing fireworks while we walked the boardwalk!
Day 2: David and Yana celebrated birthdays!!! A day at the beach and cookout at KT’s made it a great way to celebrate! I think Yana had a good first birthday in America….with a beach themed birthday cake and getting to hang out with Oksana, you can’t go wrong!
Tuesday was shopping and more beach time. The girls were going to try surfing…but the surf did not accommodate our plans! We ended our night by gorging on seafood at a buffet…yum yum!! Let me just say that Levi has proven himself to be quite the ladies’ man!! He had two little girlfriends from Ukraine that were all over him….and he them! Mira and Yara! I have never seen so much snugglin’ and kissin’ in all my days!! These little twin 8 yr olds were the most affectionate kiddos I’ve ever laid eyes on! On our last night there Mira cried because we had to say goodbye….did that make me cry? Why yes it did! So hard to see them cry….knowing they have so little joy. They were calling us Momma and Poppa, and David’s parents dirdooshka and babooshka (grama/grampa) by the end of our trip. Nadyia was another Ukie cutie who was there…the most beautiful eyes!! I can say that our adventure to go so far to see someone we had never met was a great way to start our vacation!
From there, we went to Washington, DC to do DC in a day….we also got to see my friend Stephanie who now lives/works in the area…been 7 years since we saw her, so that was a nice bonus to our trip! We did the Mall and went to the museum of natural history before heading out on our trip to PA…Frackville, PA actually! Here we met up with David’s brother and his family at Grammy’s house…a nice low key couple of days with a visit to elderly great great aunts, a block party held by the Ukrainian church, shopping, and some went to see Transformers 2. Sunday David’s two cousins, Holly and Jenny, came up with their families and the kids go along famously!
Oh…forgot to mention our stop at Mt Vernon to visit the original GW’s homestead! Great photo ops and fun history for me and the kids! David makes a great tour guide…never missing a beat with either good information or b.s. made up on the fly! Either way, he’s talented!
(finishing this blog in late august….)
We spent two days at Hershey Park…and the girls got to hang out with a friend from NJ who had been adopted a few years ago. From there we met up with my Dad and Step Mom to give the girls to them for a few weeks…the girls had a lot of fun fishing, camping, Cedar Point, and hanging out with cousins. We enjoyed time with the boys for a few weeks…but were ready for our girls to come home and add some drama to our lives!!
A few days after the girls got home, my grandmother passed away. I drove to Michigan and spent a few days with my dad and celebrated my grama’s life. I learned a lot on that trip…I learned how little I knew about my grandmother. I think that’s another blog though.